KARACHI: Pakistan football team’s head coach Mohammad Al Shamlan continued his hard-line training regime when he called up on Thursday 33 players for the national team’s training camp for the Asian Games.

The camp begins on June 1.

Shamlan from Bahrain has been stressing improving the players’ fitness since taking over at the helm and this camp will once again focus on keeping the players well-oiled for an optimum performance at the Games which will be held in the South Korean city of Incheon during September-Otcober.

Shamlan seems to be undecided on his first-choice goalkeeper for the national side as eight goalkeepers have been called up for the training camp.

His indecision on who to play between the posts comes on the back of Pakistan’s woeful performance at the recently-held Al-Nakba Cup in Palestine where they could manage just a solitary victory in three games while shipping in four goals.

There are also reports that Pakistan might play a firendly series against India ahead of the Asian Games.

Among the 33 players called up to the camp, seven are from national champions Khan Research Laboratories while Wapda provide five players.

Players called up for the camp:

Goalkeepers: Saqib Hanif, Tanveer Mumtaz (both KRL), Muzammil Hussain (Wapda), Ghazanfar Yasin (PAF), Shehroz (Navy), Usman Khan, Mohammad Umar (both NBP), Ehsanullah (HBL).

Defenders: Ahsanullah, Salman Ahmed (both KRL), Mohammad Bilal, Mohammad Ahmed, Rashid Noor (all Wapda), Mohammad Sohail (PAF), Naveed Ahmed, Mohsin Ali (both Navy), Faisal Iqbal (NBP), Amjad (HEC).

Midfielders: Saddam Hussain, Bilawal-ur-Rehman, Mehmood Khan (all KRL), Izharullah, Ashfaquddin (both KPT), Sher Mohammad, Sher Ali (both NBP), Mustafa, Umair Ali (both HEC), Mohammad Riaz (KESC).

Forwards: Naveed (Wapda), Mansoor Khan (PAF), Mohammad Bin Younis (KPT), Mohammad Zeeshan (NBP), Abdul Salam (HEC).

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2014